REPORT: Strong pace goes unrewarded at the US GP

After a superb Saturday at the Circuit of the Americas, hopes were high for another points haul heading into the Grand Prix on Sunday, with Carlos Sainz lining up in P9 and Alex Albon in P18.

Unfortunately, we could not match the success of the Sprint Race, as Carlos's race was ended prematurely after contact with Kimi Antonelli at Turn 15, while Alex was unable to recover back into the top ten after being out of position after Qualifying.

Carlos made an excellent pass on Oliver Bearman in the opening stages to rise to P8, ands was looking to replicate it against Antonelli in the same spot. Unfortunately, that door was closed by the Italian, and the pair made contact. Carlos's damage was too severe, and he was forced to retire.

That brought out the Virtual Safety Car, prompting Alex to take an early stop to remove the Hard tyres he had started on.

That put him out of sequence with most of the field, and he showed very strong pace to pass many of the back markers. He eventually got as high as 10th before making a second stop, relegating him to 17th.

From there, Alex showed yet more race-craft to pull off several more excellent passes - but he ran out of laps to make it all the way into the points-paying positions, eventually finishing 9 seconds shy of the top ten.

Focus now will switch to Mexico City next week, as we attempt to continue to build on our best season since 2016.

James Vowles commented, "Part of the reason why I'm in motorsport is you can have some fantastic days with the highest highs, and then just 24 hours later, you can walk away with nothing, as we are today. And that's the reflection of Austin.

What’s positive to me is we have really strong car pace, and that's one item that we'll carry through for the remainder of the season. But it just highlights that we have to qualify both cars in position towards the point-scoring end of the grid, and we need to ensure we're fighting through the field without contact or incident.

"I'm sorry for both Carlos and Kimi, both had good race pace today and I'm confident would have scored points, but it is just a part of racing that, as you're trying to overtake through different sections, contact may happen.

"The stewards have decided to hand Carlos a 5 place grid penalty, there was a sensible conversation however the guidelines are fairly clear on fault allocation. We will come back fighting in Mexico." Alex, meanwhile, shared James' frustrations, adding, "We started on the hard tyre, which is usually a good option when the track is this hot, but we had no grip and effectively did another stop early in the race.

"We actually had good pace, but it was a bit scrappy at times and we just weren’t clicking in the corners. This weekend I didn’t feel like I was in rhythm with the circuit, but at least we came out of the Sprint with a few points and some key learnings. Next time out in Mexico we just need to tidy a few things up and hopefully have a smooth weekend." Carlos said, "It’s a shame to end the race that way as the car had great pace today. I had done a similar move on Bearman some laps before, so I tried that inside line with Antonelli into turn 15. He opened the line and then closed the door more abruptly than what I was expecting, I tried to react by slamming on the brakes to avoid contact but it was too late and we touched.

"I was behind so I accept my part of fault and ultimately it’s a shame as it cost the race for both of us. We were quick, so it hurts not to convert it into more points today but we’ll bounce back for Mexico next week."